Chapter 4: Expensive Gifts

At breakfast, Mrs. Su put down her teacup and gave her son advice.

"Flowers," she said. "Gifts. And help, whenever he needs it. Those are the three things."

"Point one," said Chairman Su, from behind his newspaper. "Do not be cheap."

"Point two. Do not be cheap in a way he cannot refuse."

"Point three, which is mine," said Mrs. Su. "Do not leave the shower door unlocked."

Su Ye put his forehead down on the table.

"Mom. The lock works. You said it was broken."

"I said the pipe was broken," said Mrs. Su, with great dignity. "The plumber comes Thursday."

By ten that morning a courier had delivered a watch to Lu Chen's desk outside the vice president's office.

It was a very good watch.

Su Ye had chosen it because it cost as much as a small house, and a gift that costs a house cannot be an accident.

Lu Chen opened the box at his desk, read the card, and shut it.

He carried it into Su Ye's office, put it on the desk, and said, "I don't like expensive gifts."

By noon there was a car in the tower's drive with a red bow on the bonnet.

Lu Chen walked around it once.

He put the key on the desk beside the watch.

"I don't like expensive gifts," he said again, a little louder.

At three o'clock a truck arrived at the front entrance and began to unload roses.

There were two thousand of them, in red paper, and the lobby guards had to form a chain to pass them in.

Su Ye watched from the mezzanine with his hands in his pockets, delighted.

Lu Chen stood in the middle of the lobby in a tide of petals, holding one stem, with his glasses slightly crooked.

He did not look at the flowers.

He looked up at Su Ye.

"Mr. Su," he said, clearly, so the whole floor could hear. "I do not like expensive gifts."

Somebody in accounting laughed out loud.

By four, Lu Chen had given a rose to every employee in the building and sent the rest to the hospital next door.

He sat down at his desk looking very tired, and Su Ye felt, for the first time that day, a stab of real shame.

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